ABSTRACT
A studio vocal group of the 1890s, formed expressly for recordings; “possibly the first vocal group to record under its own name” [Brooks]. Membership varied; the original group consisted of John Bieling, tenor; George Gaskin, second tenor; Joe Riley, baritone; and Jim Cherry,bass. Later Cherry was replaced by Walter Snow, and for a time by a bass named Evans. The quartet’s first Edison recording was made on 27 Sep 1891: “Reception Medley.” They made 19 other cylinders on that day. In 1892 they sang for the New Jersey Phonograph Co. and for Boswell; they also worked for Columbia, Berliner, Zonophone, and Leeds & Catlin. The group broke up in 1896, succeeded by the Edison Quartet. [Brooks 1979; Walsh 1962/10.]
A vocal group that recorded for Edison after 1912. It consisted of Irene Cummings, Mabel Meade Davis, Annie Laurie McCorkle, and Anne Winkoop. [Walsh 1962/10.]
A male vocal group that recorded chiefly for Edison and Victor from ca. 1912 to 1929. The singers identified were Henry Weiman, Arthur Hall, Nick Latterner, and Frank Schwarz. Victor’s 1912 catalog was the first to list them, as singers of German language material. During World War I this was understandably an untenable specialty in the U.S., but the quartet was in the catalog again after the Armistice. “Deutschland über Alles” (Edison Diamond Disc #50187; 1914) was cut out of the Edison catalog on 12 July 1918 “for patriotic reasons.” Of the 14 Diamond Discs by the Manhattan Quartet the “most amusing title” [Walsh] appeared in 1927; it was a dance-tempo version of “Studentenlieder”/“Volkslieder” (#57023). [Walsh 1962/10; Walsh 1972/12.]
